Nick Saban claims to not know Tuesday was Election Day

Do you think Nick Saban was so focused on Saturday’s Mississippi State game he didn’t know what Tuesday was? (Getty)

Nice try, Nick Saban.

The Alabama coach said Wednesday he didn’t realize Tuesday was Election Day. While college football coaches can certainly go into a bubble during the season and miss trivial news tidbits, we refuse to believe Saban legitimately didn’t realize the importance of the day.

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“To be honest with you, I didn’t even know [Tuesday] was Election Day,” Saban said at his Wednesday press conference. “So it was so important to me that I didn’t even know it was happening. We’re focused on other things here. I don’t really make political comments, so if I say I like one person that means everyone that voted for the other person doesn’t like me. So why would I do that? I want what’s best for our country, I’m not sure I can figure that out. I want what’s best for people who want to improve their quality of life. And I hope whoever our leader is will certainly do all that he can do to keep us safe and improve the quality of life for a lot of the people that we have in the country and I don’t think I’m qualified to determine who that should be.”

As Saban noted, he displeases a portion of his fan base if he talks about his presidential preference. Not wanting to get into a political discussion at a football press conference is totally understandable.

But it’s irresponsible for Saban to either truly not know or pretend not to know what Tuesday was. Nothing is too important than your civic duty to vote. Especially when you’re a leader of a team of 100-plus men, most of whom have the chance to vote for a president for the first time in their lives.

And besides, if you read his comment closely, you’d notice that Saban said “he” when referring to the president. Was that a tell that he was bluffing about his lack of knowledge? Either way, a coach who talks about “the process” should at least directly acknowledge the existence of the political process known as election day.